Mark Watson's Live Address to the Nation

At 11.25pm last Wednesday night, the comedian Mark Watson was hoist aloft by Hunter (of Gladiator fame):

You'll need to listen back to Mark Watson's Live Address to the Nation in order to fully understand why that happened.

Assisted by Tom Basden and Tim Key, Mark's back on Radio 4 to look once again at some of the qualities and character traits that make a person. But in a change from his previous series, the audience - with their tweets, texts and comments - find themselves at the heart of a live programme. It's appropriate, then, to tell the story of the first episode through a selection of tweets, photos and audio which all appeared online at some point on the day of the show.

• "Hello. Mark Watson's going to be live on Radio 4 in just over 12 hours and needs your help..." - from the live blog. Throughout the day, the audience sent in their stories of physical and mental strength. A selection of them made it into the show, including:
  
  "claitysan: @bbccomedy #watsonlive I once pulled a really stubborn nail out of a skirting board by shouting 'I'm Brian Blessed' at it, works brilliantly" and "ilikearainbow: @bbccomedy I used to sift 10 kgs of flour/icing sugar using a sieve that was almost bigger that me when working in a patisserie. #watsonlive"
• Gillian Reynolds previews the programme in the Telegraph. She was right about the 'bold', but (sadly) not about the overtime. - "This is bold. It really is live and because of that, and the time of night, it's going to be expensive (all the behind-the-scenes people will be on overtime)"
• Photo: The trio tweak the script and prepare for the evening's programme with their producer Lianne Coop
• "watsoncomedian: Radio 4 series starts 11pm tonight. Pick Of Day in Telegraph/Indy/Express. Odd, as it's live." - Mark tweets ahead of the programme
• "CalDoughty: THE MARK WATSON RADIO SHOW BEGINS AGAIN TONIGHT WITH TIM KEY AND TOM BASDEN. EXCIIIIIIITEMENT!" - @caldoughty hits the CAPS LOCK key on Twitter.
• Mark prepares for #watsonlive by BBC Radio 4 & Radio 4 Ext - Mark looks ahead to the evening's programme
• Photo: Studio managers prepare the stage
• At the outset, Mark announced that audience would decide how the show should end. For the first programme, the choice lay between Mark performing an act of physical or mental strength. @SkevosMavros chimed in on Twitter with "Old Greek saying: 'Strong body, strong mind'. Then again, those old Greeks did sport in the nude... #watsonlive"
• If you've watched the video at the top of the page, you'll know what happened next. The last word, though, should probably go to @samuelerobinson on Twitter: "'An agreeable shambles' is a marvellous description of the show. #watsonlive"
• Hundreds of tweets came in throughout the day; you can read them by searching #watsonlive on Twitter
• You can see some more photos from the production here

Siddharth Khajuria is the online producer for Mark Watson's Live Address to the Nation

• Tune in tonight at 11pm for the next episode, when Mark will be talking about faith. He will, once again, need your help. You can tweet using #watsonlive or take part at https://bbc.in/watsonlive
• Mark Watson's Live Address to the Nation is produced by Lianne Coop